April Hike: Santa Rosa Plateau

Sunday, April 15th, 2018 at 7:30am - 12pm

Location:Santa Rosa Plateau

This event is in the past.

The AIAP's April hike will be at Santa Rosa Plateau in Murrieta.

The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve is located at the southern end of the Santa Ana Mountains in southwest Riverside County, near the city of Murrieta. The Reserve consists of 9000 acres. The land has been set aside to protect unique ecosystems like Engelmann oak woodlands, riparian wetlands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, bunchgrass prairie, vernal pools and more than 200 species of native birds and 49 endangered, threatened or rare animal and plant species, including mule deer, mountain lions, badgers, bobcats, western pond turtles, white-tailed kites and fairy shrimp.

It is an approximately 45 minutes drive from North County Mall. This is about a 7-mile round trip easy-moderate hike and takes nearly 3.5 hours, alternatively we can extend the hike via Punta Mesa Trail and Monument Hill Road. This adds about 3.0 miles to the hike.

We will meet the hikers at 7:15 AM in North County Shopping Mall (In front of Sears) and will carpool to Santa Rosa at 7:30 AM.
Direction to North County Mall: Take I-15 North, exit on Via Rancho Parkway, Go straight to the parking lot.

Please bring water, snack and hiking boots. For any questions regarding the hike please contact us at hike@aiap.org.

If you would like to drive to Santa Rosa, the address is: 39400 Clinton Keith Road, Murrieta, CA 92562. Please pass the visitor center, stay on Clinton Keith Rd (then Tenaja Rd) to see the parking lot on your left side.
We’ll start hiking from the parking lot at the Hidden Valley Trail Head (Note: not form the visitor center, see the map on below link), then we follow the Los Santos Trail to the Vernal Pools. From the Vernal Pools we continue on the Vernal Pool Trail to the Adobe Historic Homes for a picnic. From here we can return via Lomas Trail, Trans Preserve Trail and Coyote Trail back to the parking lot. Before we drive back home we can make a stop at the visitor center.

Note: AIAP does not assume any responsibility for the safety and security of hikers, and shall not be held liable for any accident, injury, loss of property or damages as a result of joining the hiking event set up by AIAP. All hikers join the hiking events at their free will and assume all the accidental dangers of a hiking event, and shall not hold AIAP liable for any bodily, financial, or property damages.